CVS adding safe opioid disposal at nine Worcester County stores
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CVS at 74 E. Main St. in Westborough
CVS Health is adding safe opioid disposal units at nine Worcester County locations that didn't already have the capability, the pharmacy chain announced Thursday.
The expansion of the opioid disposal program is one of two drug safety measures announced by the Woonsocket, R.I.,-based chain, along with new time-delay safes in all Massachusetts locations that CVS says has significantly deterred pharmacy robberies and kept opioids and other controlled substances from theft.
The nine CVS locations with new disposal units join 19 others in Worcester County already with the feature. The new locations are 74 East Main St., Westborough; 131 Main St., Spencer; 676 Southbridge St., Auburn; 1653 Main St., Athol; 54 Electric Ave., Lunenburg; 302 Main St., Oxford; 63 Canal St., Millbury; 100 Worcester St., Grafton; and 301 Central St., Winchendon.
Across Massachusetts, 50 CVS stores are being equipped with the new disposal units. CVS is adding 1,000 new in-store units across the chain in addition to the 2,500 nationwide locations, and the company has donated more than 1,000 units to local law enforcement.
Those disposal units have collected more than 1.8 million pounds of unwanted medications, including more than 90,000 pounds in Massachusetts, CVS said.
The time-delay safes are meant to deter drug thefts at pharmacies by requiring longer time for a pharmacist to open safes holding narcotics.
Worcester County had 265 opioid-related deaths in 2019 and has eclipsed 200 deaths in each of the past five years, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
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